Year names

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu May 3 13:13:02 UTC 2007


Hm. You have a point, there, Charlie, and it's right on the top of
your head. (<har! har!> Just a little 'Fifties-style adolescent
humor.) But seriously, folks, i do remember being taught how to write
a check, how to deal with a promissory note for sixty dollars for
sixty days at six percent, how to write a business letter, and other
such esoterica, when I was in the fourth grade. Do they still (try to)
teach this kind of stuff so early in the educational process? OTOH, I
was taught nothing that anyone would call "science" until I was in the
third (chemistry) and fourth (physics) years of high school.

-Wilson

On 5/3/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Year names
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The "rule" (which I as well was taught) had to do ONLY with the writing of checks--didn't it?
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 08:34:16 -0400
> >From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >Subject: Re: Year names
>
> >
> >I had no idea that there was a rule concerning the use of "and' in numbers.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >On 5/2/07, James C Stalker <stalker at msu.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> I was taught the same rule.  As I remember, "and" was to be used only before
> >> cents, in phrases such as: one hundred thirty three dollars and fifty two
> >> cents.
> >>
> >> JCS
> >>
> >>
> >> Arnold M. Zwicky writes:
> >>
> >> > to pull out one small point, about "and" in number names (in general,
> >> > not just in year names).  i recall being taught at some point in
> >> > school that things like "one hundred and two", "two hundred and
> >> > thirty", etc. were vulgar errors (in both speech and writing), that
> >> > "and" should never be used in such expressions.  (this might have
> >> > been an instance of Omit Needless Words).  the lesson seems not to
> >> > have stuck with me, since i sometimes use one version, sometimes the
> >> > other.
>
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>


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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens
------
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                                           Rumanian proverb

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